Before Rhona Martin and her Olympic team brought back gold from Salt Lake City in 2002, the image most people had of curling was of a kind of arctic bowls played by old people.

Ice queen: Eve Muirhead trains with the British women's curling team for the Winter OlympicsPhoto: PA

By Sandy Macaskill

6:04PM GMT 26 Nov 2009

If Martin gave it a mumsie makeover, then her successor, Eve Muirhead, a 19-year-old blonde with the Olympic rings tattooed on her lower back, has given it an altogether edgier look. This is now a young person's game.

Muirhead was not even a teenager when Martin sent her 'stone of destiny' gliding across the Salt Lake City ice, but back in Scotland, past midnight, she was wide awake, watching Britain win their first gold at the Winter Olympics since Torvill and Dean danced to Bolero in 1984.

That almost eight years on Muirhead has been selected as skip of the British women's team for the Vancouver Olympics in February, ahead of the likes of Jackie Lockhart, a veteran of 30 years experience and three Olympic Games, says something for Muirhead's poise and ambition, not to mention the shift in the demographic of those taking part in the sport.

Muirhead, whose family in Blair Atholl, Perthshire, are all curlers, is also a talented golfer and could be on a scholarship in the United States, but she chose curling, a sport she was introduced to aged nine, and has won the World Junior Championships for the past three years.

No wonder she is self-assured. "I was surprised [at being made skip], but if you're good enough you're old enough," she said. "If you're named as skip for the Olympic team you have to be confident in a certain way."

This is just how confident: anyone would have thought that having Martin, now a coach on UK Sport's elite programme, on call would be the perfect opportunity to soak up every last drop of experience. Muirhead has not asked for advice once.

"And she probably never will," said a wistful Martin. "I don't think she needs to. I was at the world juniors with her last year – it's phenomenal the knowledge she has of the sport. From the minute she turned up you knew she had exceptional talent and the will to win."

With five competitions to go before Vancouver, the British teams have entered the final straight. They compete, under the Scottish flag, at the European Championships in Aberdeen next week, where they will hope to establish their credentials as medal contenders for the Olympics, and begin to slide out from under the shadow of Martin's 2002 team.

Curling has grown ever more professional since then, with increasing use of video analysts and sports psychologists, and the women's team are now full time, on the ice and in the gym six days a week.

Contrary to public opinion, curling is not a relaxing game for the oldie. Sweeping ahead of the stone as it slides, slowly spinning, towards the 'house', slightly melting the pebbled ice so that the rock travels further and truer, sends the heart rate spiralling. Curlers need to be fit to lower it quickly enough to execute a skilled shot with a steady hand just seconds later.

"It has changed hugely," said Lockhart. "It used to be a hobby. It's nice to be able to say that we're athletes now. We train just as hard as other sports do. We live, sleep, eat and breath curling."

Another stereotype is that curling is a sport dominated by etiquette. However, there is scope for some sly sledging, though according to Kelly Wood, second in the team and an Olympian in 2006, the men are the worst.

"It's not unknown," laughed David Murdoch, skip of the men's team. "If someone has thrown a bad one, you might have a word, put a wee bit of doubt in their mind," added vice-skip Ewan MacDonald. "When you're on the ice, it's hell for leather, and you'll do what you need to do."

Unlike the women, the men travel to Vancouver with an Olympic medal the only one missing from their collection, though three European Championship golds and two World Championship golds suggest this team have the skill needed to put it right. As their coach, David Hay, said: "I don't think there are too many guys who want to play us for fun."

Recent years have not been quite so kind to the women's team. Even under Martin, they were unable to challenge at the Turin Games. But Martin believes that things could be different under Muirhead.

"Nothing will faze her," said Martin. "She has no fears about making the big shots. Sometimes you'd go for the safe option, but no, she'll go for the big one. And guess what – she'll make it."

Curling: the basics

1. What does the skip do? While the first three players 'throw’ their stones, the skip is almost 50m along the ice designating the line and directing sweepers.

2. What about etiquette? Curling has no specific referee. If a curler touches, or 'burns’, a stone with brush or body, he or she is relied on to declare it.

3. What’s the challenge? No rink is the same. The speed of the ice can differ, as can the surface level as friction wears the ice. Mostly it is about 'feel’.

4. Are the stones heavy? Made of granite, they weigh up to 20kg (44lb). Curlers do not take their own but use competition stones they can test. A match can last three hours and in competition curlers might play three a day